Batsmen must get it together

highlighted the problems that Zimbabwe face in batting ahead of tougher assignments against Test-playing rivals.
Pakistan will be in the country for a series -which includes a one-off Test, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches – that starts next week.

New Zealand will follow in October for a one-off Test and three ODIs.
Unless something dramatic happens to the team’s ‘team batting’, the upcoming matches might produce disappointing results for Zimbabwe.
Batting coach Grant Flower and the entire technical department have their work cut out to get the team batting its way to victory against accurate bowlers.

The bowling has been consistent for Zimbabwe with Raymond Price and Prosper Utseya leading the way while the likes of Chris Mpofu and Elton Chigumbura have had their say.
New sensation Brian Vitori and Kyle Jarvis look to be assets for Zimbabwe who also have Tinashe Panyangara back in the country and working to regaining fitness and a place in the international side.

That leaves Heath Streak with a relatively comfortable job.
A look at the statistics for the series against Bangladesh shows that Zimbabwe’s batsmen, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza had good figures individually.
Taylor did well in the Test and his 176 runs -which included an unbeaten 105 in the second innings-helped Zimbabwe win the Test by 130 runs.

Sibanda contributed 116, Masakadza 109 and Taibu 82.
Victory in the Test was built around a first innings lead of 83 and Taylor’s century.
But a closer look at the scorecard will show that Zimbabwe’s first innings total of 370 was well short of the expected score once they closed Day One on 264/2.

Most analysts were looking at a minimum of 450 but the team moved from 304/2 to 370 all out on the second morning of the Test.
Thus EIGHT wickets fell for just 66 runs against a rusty Bangladesh bowling attack struggling for accuracy.
Losing eight wickets for 66 runs on a home venue after all the hard work in warm-up matches suggests a batting crisis.
The problem with Zimbabwe’s batting has been that new batsmen throw their wickets away such that the fall of one wicket triggers a collapse.

Competitive teams are known to build partnerships through the top order and only the tail is supposed to collapse without any meaningful stands.
In the second innings Zimbabwe’s openers did well to negotiate the first 21 overs but 69/0 suddenly became 83/3 in 11 ensuing overs.
Night watchman Raymond Price was the fourth victim and it needed a 113-run stand for the fifth wicket between Taibu and Taylor to give Zimbabwe the edge.

Zimbabwe won the ODI series largely because of good bowling at Harare Sports Club where the Bangladesh batsmen struggled to handle Vitori and his fellow seamers.
Individually, Zimbabwe had Sibanda as the best batsman for his 242 runs in five matches while Masakadza (181), Taibu (158) and Taylor (123) also occupy the Top Seven run scorers for the series.
But while Bangladesh batted poorly at Harare Sports Club, the Zimbabwe batsmen made heavy work of it.

In the first ODI, Bangladesh were all out for 184 and Zimbabwe lost six wickets in reply.
At one stage Zimbabwe were 112/1 but were soon reeling at 124/4.
In the second ODI, Bangladesh were dismissed for 188 and this time there were some partnerships for Zimbabwe as they lost just three wickets in the chase.

In the third ODI, Zimbabwe batted first and made 250/7 off their allotted 50 overs.
A century stand for the third wicket built a solid platform for a huge score but Zimbabwe moved from 181/2 to 245/7 in a 7,4-over period which included the batting powerplay.
In the end, 250 became an achievable target and it needed a late rally by the seamers to restrict Bangladesh to 245 all out when they had been 229/5 at one stage.

The series moved to Bulawayo for the remaining two matches and the batting woes got worse for Zimbabwe.
In the fourth match they batted first and looked poised for a decent total as they were 183/4 in the 44th over.
But a late collapse saw Zimbabwe being bowled out for 199, which meant that the last SIX wickets fell for just 16 runs.

Bangladesh eased to a six-wicket win.
In the final match of the series, Zimbabwe chose to field first and Bangladesh made a gettable 253.
With Taylor falling for a duck, alarm bells rang too early.

A 57-run stand for the second wicket took Zimbabwe to 59/1 but a quick tumble moved the score to 73/4.
Forster Mutizwa and Malcolm Waller did well to rebuild the innings, taking Zimbabwe to 140/4.
However, Mutizwa’s needless run out saw Zimbabwe collapse from 140/4 to 160 all out.

Thus FIVE wickets fell for just 20 runs as Keegan Meth could not bat after his injury off the last ball of the Bangladesh innings.
So the consistency in which the Zimbabwe batting collapsed in the series against Bangladesh should be of huge concern as the team prepares for the tour by Pakistan.
Pakistan will be more competitive than Bangladesh and that means a lot more is expected of the Zimbabwe batsmen if we are to have a competitive series.